Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst is about about a boy named Alexander who has bad hair, who gets out of bed to face a day that seems to grow increasingly worse with each passing minute. Indeed, on the very first page, Alexander wakes to hair full of gum, trips on his skateboard, and drops a sweater in a sink full of water. Throughout his day, Alexander continues to have a bad day, and cannot wait for the day to end. 

Guided Reading: Level M

Classroom Activities: 

Have the students write about a time when they had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at school. What happened? Did the day get better? How did it change? Who helped make it better?

Create a class rap about the Class's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day at School. On a Mac, use GarageBand to create a podcast. On a PC use Audacity for recording. Each student records a part of their terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Have them create a chorus verse that will be said after every few recordings. After the voices are recorded, add a beat or music to the rap.

Have you ever woke up in bad mood? Well Alexander has. Alexander goes through a day were a serious of unfortunate events keep happening. Read to find out if it gets any better. The leveling system is The Lexile, reading level AD840L. Students can do a cause and effect activity based on the events and emotions Alexander goes through.

This is a good book to use for upper grades 3rd-5th grade. This story is about a boy named Alexander and how he is having a bad day because everything is going wrong since the moment he woke up. I would use this book in my classroom by having students do descriptive writing and having them write about a time that they too were having a bad day. (Book Reading Level: AR 3.7)

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Guided Reading: Level M

This is great book to read for when students are not having a good day. The book is about all the horrible things that happen to Alexander during the day and how they just keep getting worse. But, the point of the story is to help students understand that even though you have a bad day there are good things in each day and they day will soon end and you can start a new day.

As a student I feel like this book can be relatable. Some of the events that Alexander is faced with, may be some of the same things that the students face. Everyone has a bad day every now and again. An activity that could be used would be getting the students to sequence the events in the story, or to write about a time that they had a bad day and how they felt, and then write about how they overcame that bad day. 

Lexile: AD840